Lux [h.s]

fifty-two

The next day upon walking downstairs Cora was greeted by the announcement that Harry had left the house earlier that morning. She had to bite her tongue not to comment on how irresponsible it was, because it was just like him to go away while he was still recovering from the fever of the day before.

She also didn't bother asking where he'd gone because she knew they wouldn't have told her. She still couldn't tell whether they didn't know or if they were keeping it secret from her. Knowing Harry, it was probably the first. He struck her as the kind of person that enjoyed doing things on his own. They were probably used to having a master that came and went however he pleased, too.

After a quick breakfast, Cora roamed the garden for an hour or two, testing the limits of her magic on the blades of grass and pebbles all around her. She quickly grew bored of it, though, so she went back in the house and up to the library, eager to continue her read.

Only to discover that not only her book was still nowhere to be found, but someone had accurately removed every single book about the War.

She stared at the empty shelf, a frown on her face, and then went looking for the missing books all around the room. But she couldn't even find one. How could dozens of books vanish like that?

There was a knock, and Dwyn entered the room.

"I forgot to tell you earlier, but the master has requested that you do not leave the house today, for safety reasons," she said. She turned around and took a step out of the room.

"Wait!"

She stopped. "Yes?"

Cora wanted to ask her about the books, but the question remained tangled at the back of her throat. For all she knew, she was the one that had removed them. "Nothing," she ended up saying. "You can go."

Dwyn smiled and left.

Cora waited for her to walk down the stairs and went back to her bedroom.

Harry was keeping her confined once again. He was keeping her safe, away from Soren's prying eyes, but confined all the same. The afternoon before he'd let her go out in the clearing, though. What was the difference now?

Unless... Unless he had a reason to fear for her safety more than usual today, and, maybe, that reason could also explain why he wasn't in the house, even though he should've been. Had he heard something from Evandra, or from the king? Was he putting himself in danger again?

He would never tell her, though. For all she knew, Soren could be coming straight into the forest, and he wouldn't tell her unless he found the house. Which meant that, if she wanted to know what was going on, she had to go out and find out on her own.

But Harry had told his staff to keep her inside the house. Maybe he'd sensed she'd put herself in trouble while he wasn't around to stop her. They wouldn't let her leave—but that didn't mean she couldn't at least try.

She made a plan and walked to the ground floor. They expected it to be easy to keep her inside the house. They didn't expect her to fight back—which also meant they had no chance against her, because she was determined and fast, and wouldn't let Harry tell her what to do one more time.

After a quick look around, she noticed Dwyn was on the upper floors and Raven in front of the house. The rest she couldn't locate, but it was a good thing, because it meant they weren't close enough to stop her.

Cora opened a window on the ground floor, one of the ones that faced the woods directly, and jumped out of it. She didn't bother closing it and ran into the woods, only stopping when she couldn't easily see the clearing anymore.